Justin Rose, Who Is Going to Rio, Addresses Those Who Aren’t

TROON, Scotland — The recent withdrawals by several top players from the 2016 Rio Olympics golf competition continued to be a frequent topic of conversation Wednesday on the eve of the 2016 British Open. Even the players who have committed to playing in the Rio Games were forced to comment on those who have declined to go, a group that now includes the top four golfers in the world: Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.

“It’s obviously disappointing, of course it is,” said Justin Rose, who will be competing at the Olympics for Britain. “There’s no point lying about that. But I totally respect and understand their perspective and their decision, and it obviously comes down to personal reasons and that you have to respect.

Rose was also asked about McIlroy’s harsh rebuke of golf in the Olympics on Tuesday, when McIlroy said he would probably not watch the Olympic golf tournament next month. Asked which events he would watch, McIlory answered: “Probably the events like track and field, swimming, diving — the stuff that matters.”

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McIlroy, left, with Justin Rose after a practice round on Wednesday.CreditPaul Childs/Reuters

Rose tried to give McIlroy the benefit of the doubt.

“Hopefully, slip of the tongue, you know what I mean?” Rose said. “One of those moments. Yeah, I’m not personally taking too much on board by that comment.”

Rose was also asked how winning a gold medal would compare to winning a major golf championship, something Rose did at the 2013 United States Open.

“I don’t think you can compare the two,” he replied. “I think if I were to fast forward 10 years, I’d like my career to read, ‘Justin Rose, multiple major champion and Olympic gold medalist.’ ”

DRUG TESTING TALK Rory McIlroy has been making news in other ways this week. On Tuesday, he also called for golf to have more stringent drug-testing regulations, saying the sport was far behind the drug-testing protocols of other sports and relied too often on urine tests instead of blood tests.

“I think if golf is in the Olympics and golf wants to be seen as a mainstream sport as such, it has to get in line with the other sports that test more rigorously,” McIlroy said.

Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the R&A, which organizes the Open and helps govern the sport, on Wednesday indicated that there may be new drug-testing procedures coming in golf’s future.

“Our belief is that we should be as a sport right at the highest level of standards around antidoping,” Slumbers said. “And that’s something that the tours and ourselves are privately talking about behind closed doors. It’s not a matter for public discussion.”

A SOFTER COURSE Multiple players visiting and practicing at Royal Troon this week have commented that the course’s fairways are soft compared with the customary firm and bouncy British Open conditions. The blame goes to an especially wet Scottish winter, which appears to have mildly irked event officials who were hoping for the usual unrelenting conditions.

“At one point during winter I think there were six fairways completely under water,” said Martin Slumbers. “We were pumping about a million gallons of water off a week. So I mean the grounds team here at Royal Troon has done an absolutely outstanding job to get it to this position.”

But on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, there were significant rainstorms again.

“A few weeks ago, it was a little bit browner, a little bit firmer,” Slumbers said. “But Mother Nature is one thing we can’t control.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B13 of the New York edition with the headline: Talk Turns Toward Rio, and How Players Stand. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe